New York, NY - The Columbia Baseball team defeated the Hofstra Pride, 21-7, on Wednesday afternoon at Andy Coakley Field.  Columbia was led by Ryan Schmidt who was 5 for 6 at the plate with five RBI's and four runs scored. 

The Lions got on the board first scoring nine runs in the bottom half of the first.  Columbia tallied runs in six seperate innings, for a total of 21 runs on 23 hits.  The Lions were led by first basemen Schmidt who batted .833 in the contest.  Also contributing at the plate for the Lions were Billy Hess (4 for 6) and Nick Solaro (3 for 4). 

Hofstra got on the board in the second, as J.P. Wechter (2 for 5) singled to left, followed by a single to right field from Ryan Cosentino (2 for 3).  Wechter crossed the plate on a two-out single by David Huth for the Pride's first run of the game.  Hofstra scored again in the third on a RBI single from Cosentino, scoring Josh Stewart who led the Pride on the day going 3 for 5 at the plate with three runs scored. 

The Pride scored four runs on two hits in the seventh.  William Palmer singled to leadoff the inning, followed by Stewart reaching on a error, Josh Stern then walked and Tom Brown was hit by a pitch, which push Palmer across the plate.  Wechter then singled for three RBI's as Columbia left fielder Mike Anderson made a fielding error on the play.  The Pride scored one more in the ninth as Stewart led off the inning with a triple and later scored on another error by Anderson. 

Ricky Caputo took the loss on the mound for Hofstra, giving up 11 earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched.

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